Adam Silver confirms revolutionary new format for 2026 NBA All-Star Game

The long-discussed idea of Team USA facing off against Team World in the NBA All-Star Game is finally happening. Commissioner Adam Silver confirmed the league will debut the new format during the 2026 showcase in Los Angeles.

Silver made the announcement during an appearance on “Breakfast Ball,” revealing that the 2026 All-Star Game, set to be played at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, will pit a team of American-born NBA stars against a squad of international standouts.

NBA meets the Olympics

“As part of our new media rights deal, the All-Star Game is coming back to NBC,” Silver explained. “And next season just so happens to align with the Winter Olympics. That means the All-Star Game will air live on NBC on the same day as Olympic coverage. It’s moving to an afternoon slot, and immediately after, the Olympics continue. So we thought - what better time to launch a USA vs. the World matchup?”

Details of the game format are still under wraps. It’s unclear whether the game will follow the traditional 48-minute structure or if the league will experiment again, as it has in recent years with tweaks like target scoring and quarter resets.

NBA All-Star games formats: a brief history

This marks the fourth major format shift in All-Star history. The East vs. West setup, which debuted in 1951, was scrapped in 2018 in favor of a draft-style game where two team captains selected rosters playground-style. That concept lasted through 2023 before the league reverted back to the conference model, which promptly delivered a staggering 211–186 final score—an absurd 397 combined points. Since 2010, both teams have routinely surpassed 130 points, often with minimal defense on display.

In 2025, the NBA tested a Final Four-style mini-tournament, which showed promise, until momentum was interrupted by a 20-minute tribute to the TNT broadcast crew during their final All-Star Game telecast.

NBA “back to the drawing board” with All-Star Game

“It hasn’t worked,” Silver admitted back in March. “We’ve gone back to the drawing board. We haven’t delivered the kind of experience our players - or our fans - can be proud of.”

With the 2026 All-Star Game offering a fresh concept and a global twist, the league is hoping to revive interest in an event that has struggled to remain relevant in recent years. The stakes - and the spotlight—will be bigger than ever.

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